In 2018, Zojirushi celebrates its 100th anniversary, and a century of products designed to improve customers' quality of life—bringing comfort, ease, vitality and affluence to people around the world. Zojirushi was established in 1918 as a producer of hand-blown vacuum bottles and has been a world leader in thermal products ever since. The Zojirushi line was expanded to include a wide range of stainless steel vacuum bottles, rice cookers, breadmakers, Air Pot® beverage dispensers, thermal serving carafes, specialty cookware, small electrics, restaurant equipment, and other products. Striving to remain faithful to the principles that embodied the company's first 100 years, and the reputation of quality and durability it earned them, Zojirushi looks forward to a future of continued innovation and inspired design.

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Starting Japan Fair 2018, we will host an annual competition to determine the mascot for Japan Fair! Since 2018 is the year of the dog, we are looking for a dog themed mascot, along with a Japanese theme to it. Show us your creativity and artistic skills!

The Mascot should reflect the Japanese theme of Japan Fair and the zodiac for this year, the dog.

No animated formats or copyright-protected characters may be submitted; all art and characters must be original compositions.

All submissions become property of Japan Fair for use in promoting our event, website, and related activities. Japan Fair reserves the right to make slight alterations and modify the original design for promoting the fair, website, and related activities.

Once the winner has been decided, all rights to the drawings will return to the artist, except for the winner, which will be returned after the following contest concludes.

Any nudity (implied or actual), drug paraphernalia or other non-family friendly content in submissions will be grounds for removal of those images from the contest. Japan Fair reserves the right to remove any submission it deems inappropriate.

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Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, Shizu began calligraphy at age three under her mother’s guidance. After graduating from University of Teacher Education, Fukuoka (Program of Arts, Japanese Calligraphy Course), she studied the origins of KANJI (Chinese characters adopted into Japanese) at an institute in Kyoto run by Mr. Shizuka Shirakawa, the Japanese authority on kanji ideograms. In 2009, her studies brought her to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of Arts London.

Shizu actively began holding solo exhibitions during her university years. Commissioned by various Japanese public offices and industries, Shizu has created and continues to create numerous calligraphic works. One of her specialties is the expression of social and environmental issues in the form of calligraphy, and her work has been used on the covers of protocols of the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties, Meeting of the Parties, and General Assembly. She also had great commercial success collaborating with a major Japanese brand, designing Yukata (lightweight summer kimono) patterns using calligraphy.

Shizu continues to give lectures and write about Japanese customs and the origins of KANJI. In the summer of 2016, she launched ArTshirtsBySHIZU to produce T-shirts with KANJI designs that express the essence of East Asia (Japan).

Shizu currently resides in the city of Bellevue with her husband and 18-month old daughter. She holds free calligraphy classes for children at the Bellevue Library once a month to give back to the community, and to give children an opportunity to experience the beauty of the Japanese language.

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For more than 170 years, New York Life Insurance Company has been there to help make sure your family is taken care of. Now New York Life wants to help you give your family the gift of protection and security.

Japan Fair 2016 is New York Life’s way of giving back to the families we proudly serve in the Greater Seattle community.

If this is a Child ID event, all children accompanied by a parent or legal guardian will receive a free identification card, complete with their emergency contact information, a photograph, and fingerprints.

Bring your family and friends and come out to show your support for Japan Fair 2016.